Alfred Mosher Butts

Alfred Butts was an architect.

He also loved to draw art.

One day, he made a new game. He wanted a game for words. He looked at a newspaper to help. He saw which letters were used most.

He made tiles with letters on them. Players use seven tiles to make words. He only made four "S" tiles. This makes the game a bit harder.

He first called the game Lexiko. Later, a man named James Brunot changed the name. He called it Scrabble.

Now, many people play this game. It is a very famous word game.

Alfred Mosher Butts was an architect.

He was also an artist. Six of his drawings are in a big museum.

In the 1930s, Butts lost his job. He decided to make a board game. He studied how games work. He saw three kinds of games. Some use numbers. Some use moves, like chess. Others use words.

Butts wanted to mix skill with luck. He combined word puzzles with anagrams. An anagram is a word made from other letters. He studied a newspaper to help. He counted how often letters appear. He used these numbers to pick the tiles. He only made four "S" tiles. This keeps the game from being too easy.

He first called his game Lexiko. He later called it Criss Cross Words. He sold the idea to James Brunot. Brunot changed the name to Scrabble.

In 1949, the Brunots made 2,400 sets. They lost money at first. But the game became very popular. Macy's store helped sell it. By 2009, people sold 150 million sets worldwide.

Later, Butts made another game. He called it "Other Game." It uses 144 letter tiles. It was not as big a hit as Scrabble.

Alfred Mosher Butts was a very creative man.

He worked as an architect in New York. He was also a talented artist. Six of his drawings are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Butts was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1899. He studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He lived a long life and died in 1993.

In the early 1930s, Butts lost his job. He used his free time to design a new board game. He looked at how other games worked. He found three main kinds of games. Some use numbers like bingo. Some use moves like chess or checkers. Others are word games like anagrams. Butts wanted a game that used both skill and luck.

To make the game fair, Butts studied the English language. He read the front page of The New York Times. He counted how often every letter appeared. He used these counts to pick the tiles. He only included four "S" tiles. This makes it harder to make words plural. He first called the game Lexiko. Later, he called it Criss Cross Words.

Butts was very determined to sell his idea. He eventually sold the rights to James Brunot. Brunot renamed the game Scrabble. In 1948, the game was trademarked. The Brunots turned an old schoolhouse in Connecticut into a factory. In 1949, they made 2,400 sets. They actually lost $450 at first. But Macy's department store helped the game grow.

Scrabble became a huge success around the world. By 2009, over 150 million sets had been sold. In his 80s, Butts made another game. He called it "Other Game." It uses 144 tiles and four boards. He called it "simultaneous solitaire." It was not as famous as Scrabble. Today, a street sign in Jackson Heights honors his work. The sign uses letter values from the game.

Alfred Mosher Butts was a creative American architect and designer.

He is most famous for inventing the board game Scrabble in 1931. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, on April 13, 1899, he grew up in a family with a lawyer father and a teacher mother. He graduated from Poughkeepsie High School in 1917. Later, he earned a degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1924. Butts was also an amateur artist. His talent was recognized when the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired six of his drawings.

In the early 1930s, Butts was working as an architect in Jackson Heights, New York. However, he became unemployed during this period. He decided to use his time to design a new board game. To prepare, he studied the existing types of games. He categorized them into three distinct groups. The first group consisted of number games, such as bingo or dice games. The second group included move games, like chess or checkers. The third group was made of word games, such as anagrams.

Butts wanted to create a game that combined both chance and skill. He decided to merge elements of anagrams with crossword puzzles. Crossword puzzles were a very popular pastime during the 1920s. In his design, players draw seven lettered tiles from a pool. They then attempt to form words using those letters. This mechanic requires players to balance the luck of the draw with their own vocabulary skills.

To ensure the game was balanced, Butts performed a detailed analysis of the English language. He studied the front page of The New York Times to observe letter usage. He calculated the frequency of every letter in the alphabet. He used these specific frequencies to determine how many of each letter tile to include. For example, he included only four "S" tiles. He did this so that making words plural would not make the game too easy for players.

Butts initially named his invention Lexiko. He later changed the name to Criss Cross Words while seeking a buyer. He was very tenacious despite several rejections from game makers. Eventually, he sold the rights to an entrepreneur named James Brunot. Brunot made minor adjustments to the design and renamed the game Scrabble. In 1948, the game was officially trademarked. The Brunots converted an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, Connecticut, into a factory to produce the game.

Early production was difficult for the Brunots. In 1949, they manufactured 2,400 sets but lost $450. Despite this initial loss, the game grew in popularity through orders from Macy's department store. By 1952, demand was so high that the Brunots asked Selchow and Righter to handle marketing and distribution. The success of Scrabble has been massive. As of 2009, over 150 million sets had been sold worldwide. In North America alone, between one and two million sets are sold every year.

Butts continued to invent even in his later years. In 1985, when he was in his 80s, he released a game called "Other Game." This was also a tile-based game, but it featured 144 letter tiles and four playing boards. In this version, players receive 36 letters and try to create as many word combinations as possible. Butts described this style as "simultaneous solitaire." While it did not reach the commercial heights of Scrabble, it earned a 5.5 out of 10 rating on BoardGameGeek.

Today, the legacy of Alfred Mosher Butts is visible in his former neighborhood. A street sign at 35th Avenue and 81st Street in Jackson Heights honors his invention. The sign is stylized using letters that include their Scrabble point values as subscripts. This serves as a permanent memorial to the man who turned linguistic study into a global pastime.